Active Citizens Global Toolkit - Active Citizens - British Council

Prioritising
Prioritising is used to move from discussing a wide range of ideas to
focusing on just a few.
There are many approaches to prioritising and it’s important to be
transparent about the process in advance.
Evaluating according to criteria: participants agree criteria for decision
making, and then identify which of the options best reflect these criteria.
Open conversation: invite the group to share perspectives about the
various options, weighing up the merits of each before deciding where to
focus.
A voting process: the options are written on a flip chart and participants
are invited to write their initials by the options they prefer. They are given
two votes, and the issues with the most votes are chosen.
For a confidential process invite participants to write their preferences on
a slip of paper and deposit them in a box. Count the results.
A four corners debate
This is used to demonstrate that there are different perspectives and
to encourage debate. It can lead to strong opinions so be prepared for a
full debrief.
Step one: Post four signs around the room (one sign in each corner):
‘Strongly agree’, ‘Agree’, ‘Disagree’, ‘Strongly disagree’. Carefully design
provocative statements which you think will help participants to explore an
important Active Citizens theme.
Examples could be: ‘Money will decide the future of the world, not people’
or ‘Climate Change is the most important challenge facing the human race
today’.
Step two: Read the statement and invite participants to stand close to the
sign which represents their opinion. Give participants the opportunity to
express why they are standing where they are (it’s useful to give them a
time limit for sharing their opinion). After hearing from a selection or all of
the participants, carry out a full debrief.
Globally connected, Locally engaged - Active Citizens: Toolkit. Copyright © 2011 (v2 2012) The British Council
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